# The State Didn’t Just Watch MLK — It Went to War Against Him

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scheer-intelligence-426023/the-state-didn-t-just-watch-mlk-it-went-to-war-against-him
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scheer-intelligence-426023/the-state-didn-t-just-watch-mlk-it-went-to-war-against-him.md
Podcast: [Scheer Intelligence](https://stenobird.com/podcast/scheer-intelligence-426023)
Published: 2026-01-19T06:45:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/scheer-intelligence?utm_source=KCRW&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=kcrw-show-rss
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/73186298-95d2-4eff-916a-fde055a34c78.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/scheer-intelligence-426023/episodes/the-state-didn-t-just-watch-mlk-it-went-to-war-against-him
Duration seconds: 2676

## Resource

Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, official tributes reduce a radical critic of empire, capitalism, and militarism into a safely packaged icon — while quietly ignoring the brutal reality of how the U.S. government treated him in real time. Martin Luther King Jr. was not merely monitored by the FBI; he was hunted, harassed, and psychologically terrorized by a federal agency determined to silence a man whose moral authority threatened entrenched power. In this republished interview, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard exposes the depth of the FBI’s crusade against King — a campaign far darker than most Americans are ever taught. Revisiting this history is not an exercise in nostalgia, but a necessary confrontation with how the state responds when demands for justice move from rhetoric to action.

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## Transcript

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